Alright, so my brother has decided to have me build him a computer. The computer is really not for gaming at all and doesn't have to be very impressive in the least. To put it in perspective, he is building the computer for ebay and told me that although he's building it for that, he wants "bells and whistles like a dvd burner"... yeah, i think that gives you an idea. So the point is, pretty simple build, but I think you'll see from what I got so far that I tend to overdo things. By the way, I'm going to be ordering ALL of the parts off of newegg, so if you decide to give me a suggestion, please refer to newegg for the link to the product. chassis: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811125486 cd/dvd roms : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827106029 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827106256 120mm fan: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835129242 HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148107 Ram: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820141424 PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103935 CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103537 MOBO: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131558 As for video and sound, I'm just going to use the onboard for both. It's also important to mention that I have a budget of 900 USD. Not a dollar more. Included is a LCD monitor (I was looking at a 17 inch ACER monitor) and copy of Windows XP Pro. All of that stuff comes out to just under 900 dollars (something like 896). Any suggestions for improvement would be greatly appreciated.
you should go sff if the rig isn't for any gaming they're just so cute! http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16856140018 like that
I think what youv'e got there is pretty good so far. If it's only for Ebay and he doesn't need 80GB of HDD space, i'd skimp on that and get a 40GB IDE and upgrade the DVD Burner to a Sony or Plextor if he want's reliability.
Ehh.. There's something within my soul that makes me hate a computer that small. I dont know what it is though :-P Maybe it's because my chassis is monsterous and sounds like a small jet when its cold and like an entire airport when it's getting warm. But thanks for the thought... I've actually heard some pretty good things about those little beasts. Truth be told, I dont know if he's going to need all 80 gigs or not. I agree that it seems a little excessive, but I decided on that higher amount because these days, software, videos, etc are getting higher and higher in file size. Also, he will probably have this computer for a very long time before he replaces it, so I want him to still have what's considered a decent amount of space in 5 years or so. Like Addis, I have never had a problem with Lite-on drives, I am going to look in to the cost difference of Sony/Plextor to see if it looks worth it to me. **edit** Yeah, so I looked into the different burners and I didn't realize how much more costly Plextor is then Lite-on or Sony! They are almost double the price.. I'm sure they're nice and all, but still... geez! Sony just happens to be having a "Weekend sale on the drive I need, so I think I'm going to be switching to Sony drives http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827131031
Yeah, if having a DVD burner is what he thinks are bells and whistles, he's got it made. You probably could shave a few bucks off by going with a Sempron Socket 754, but given how cheap that Athlon is, it's really hard to justify. Nothing wrong with that Antec, but this Fortron AX450-PN has better specs and is a little cheaper. Integrated video is fine, but let's just speculate he would want to play something besides Solitare: this is a few bucks more and has PCI Express. That could give it a longer life down the road should he want to go to Vista *shudder*. But, what you have shouldn't be an issue if you go with what you've picked out.
Well, I made the purchase just moments ago. I ended up getting basically what I said I was going to get, but I got the Sony drives instead of the Lite-ons. Here's what I got.. at the end I'll show you the total. Maybe it can help someone out in the future for a decent, cost effective build: cpu: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103537 Windows: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16837102062 RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820141424 CD drives: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827131014 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827131031 120mm fan: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835186005 rounded ide cables: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16812104202 Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131558 HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148107 Chassis: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811125486 Monitor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824009074 Subtotal: 788.52 USD Tax: 56.59 USD Shipping 53.61 USD ?? Electronic Waste Recycling Fee?? 8.00 USD TOTAL: 898.72 USD Parts are on their way.. be crossing your fingers for a problem-free build for once.
Dang, I guess I was typing up my last message as you posted. That's a shame.. About the video, I've considered that... I just figure that if in a few months or a year or whatever, if he decides to start using anything graphically accelerated, I will throw a card in there for him and all will be fine. But yeah, it would have been pretty nice to have that 6100 in there for him right off the bat.. and for that price. Very nice PSU also, didn't even look at Fortron when i was building. And as for Vista... **sob** that's just a menace to society. I dont think he'll be running that for a good, long while. I'd have to throw a pretty video card in there and probably another gig of ram.. How sad. Very helpful, as always, B... too bad I was so hasty to get ordering or I may have gotten a bit better of a rig for my [brother's] money.
Ah, well, it's not like you stuck him with an Epox motherboard and a Q-Tech PSU *shiver*. In a year, something like a 7800GS could feesibly be under $200, so it's not like you wouldn't have any options left. If Vista came through with what MS promised, it really would be a revolutionary OS. The NT code isn't bad, but what MS needs to do is start from the ground up. I haven't beta tested Vista myself, but from what I see, it doesn't make the changes MS needs to make to have a solid OS.
